Sustainability

Sustainability runs through the entire ethos of Legends of the Wayside.

We are a company devoted to sustainable practice and production. We hand-select each and every one of the companies we work with, to make absolutely certain every item of snow, surf and skate clothing that comes through your letterbox has come from a good place.

A good place for the cotton growers, a good place for factory workers, the materials themselves and the earth that they come from.

Many ethical clothing brands shout about their sustainable factories and the money they are putting into conservation charities, but even some of the big dogs are producing items that cannot be recycled once the clothes have been well worn and no longer serve their purpose.

We are proud of our uncompromising commitment to finding positive sources, and ones that will not harm the earth at the end of the garment’s lifecycle.

We will even sacrifice profit to get the best we can and offer it at the best price we can.

Sustainability can be a bit of a taboo subject, how much waste you actually throw into landfill, the amount of electricity you use, or where you shop, sometimes reverting to habit just to make life a little cheaper.

We are fully transparent. But don’t worry, our trousers aren’t.

Still creating some epic designs and bold imagery, we are filling a gap in the market by being environmentally conscious and affordable at the same time. Sadly, there are currently few brands who encompass both of these things.

We put people at the forefront of everything we do.

Our name was coined from wanting to celebrate the pioneering characters that aren’t usually celebrated, the humble legends of sport, who are always a selfless smiling face in the line-up, in the queue for the ski lift, pushing your boundaries in the skate park, never ceasing to encourage others.

It’s people who stand up for looking after the planet and are inspirational, people who make their voice heard, who want to ensure the world we live in can be enjoyed by other boarders in generations to come.

But it’s not just the riders and the legends and the environmentalists that we celebrate. We respect every person involved in getting our clothing from the field to the factory to the retailer’s store. All the suppliers for our top and bottom garments are verified by the FAIRWEAR organisation, who make it their mission to ensure living wages, gender equality, and safe working conditions are upheld, and workers are empowered by trade unions.

All our beanies are British-grown and British-manufactured.

Their production is in line with Sedex to make sure their company is as ethically conscious as possible, both in terms of the environment and the workers themselves.

Feel confident in knowing that for every item you own from Legends of the Wayside, every hand it has passed through has been treated and paid fairly for the work they have put in.

One of our criteria to work with suppliers is that they are GOTS certified: the Global Organic Textile Standard is extremely strict, ensuring more than three quarters of the fibres are organic, and all processes are environmentally and socially responsible. To get one of these certifications, there are a lot of hoops to jump through. You’ve got to ensure you use no heavy metals, chlorine, plastics or anything carcinogenic in bleaches, weaving oils and dyes.

From the field to export, we are stoked that we can rely on these guys to produce some top quality clothing, whilst ensuring the environment is cared for.

Whenever a Legends of the Wayside t-shirt, jumper, hoodie or top drops through your letterbox, know it is certified by the Oeko-text standard 100. This doesn’t just mean that it is environmentally harmless for the planet, but also for humans.

We go to I Dress Myself for all our printing needs. They can safely say they are working to be leaders in the printing world.

Where most other printers use gelatin in the stencils for a screen, these guys are 100% vegan.

There have been links made to the plastics and heavy metals that make up most inks in the industry, that can damage the o-zone, but instead these guys use water-based inks, instead of washing away such destructive byproducts.

As you know, we love our bold prints - they can achieve all this without compromising the vibrancy of the colours and durability of the prints.

Fast fashion and passing fads are so last century. These days, ‘slow fashion’ is all the rage.

These factories that produce all our garments have fantastic values, manufacturing with green renewable energy and vegan products, recycling waste wherever possible, recycling waste to either use again or for feed in arable farming, rotating crops to promote healthier soil, and working with closed cycles to reduce water usage, making a really substantial impact on reducing their carbon footprint. Their extensive support helps us in our mission to become one of the most sustainable clothing brands out there.

Thanks to the Eden Reforestation Project, we have had the opportunity to put some of our profits back into conserving our planet.

Deforestation in certain parts of the world is more prolific than others, destroying homes for animals: once one species is affected, there’s knock-on effect on everything else in that food-chain. A percentage of the money we make is sent to fund more trees to be planted, in countries where deforestation is rife. It’s not just animals that will benefit: the earth will be healthier so erosion with decrease, the quality of soil will improve and water tables will stabilize, meaning crop yields will flourish, more income for farmers and their families are less susceptible to being drawn into slave labour to scrape by.

By planting trees, the impacts are endless. Working towards neutralising our own carbon footprint becomes an achievable goal.